The Tu Linh Legend Hotel in Hanoi

I have to say that if anyone ever visits Hanoi, they should definitely stay at the Tu Linh Legend hotel. We paid $28 a night to stay here and they have exceeded our expectations. 

The staff is almost over the top friendly...helping out with suggestions of places to eat and things to see, and the room was clean and comfy. 

We had forgotten that breakfast was included until Helmut went down to get some free coffee this morning in the lobby. They redirected him to the basement and he found out that they had a huge spread waiting for us!

The lady in the lobby (May) gave us a hug before she left because she knew she would never see us again. We had only checked in the day before but she treated us like we were old friends. They are going to let us stash our bags at reception when we get back from Halong bay in a few days. 

Seriously...i can't say enough good things about this place. These guys were great!

Tulinhpalacehotels.com

Hanoi day 2

Don Xuang market. It's like their verson of Costco.

These ladies were gettin after that street food!

Not as adventurous with the food today. We just had pork and beef. The food in Hanoi is a little different than in the south. Seems like there's a lot of fried stuff. There's still Phô though, that's everywhere.

See? I wasn't kidding when i said they will strap just about anything to the back of a motorbike!

Hanoi- a Photographer's Paradise!

Hanoi Adventure in Food

We've made it to Hanoi. We are staying at the Tu Linh Legend hotel which i found on Tripadvisor for 28 bucks a night. So far, this place has the friendliest staff of any hotel i've ever stayed in.

We walked around the general vicinity of the hotel to find some lunch and settled on one of those crazy hole in the wall places with the Holly Hobby chairs.

Once we opened the menu, we knew we had picked the perfect place!

Along with Tortoise, goat, duck, snake, buffalo, snail and pigeon, they also had fried sparrow and frog legs. 

The tortoise and snake was way too expensive so we settled on fried sparrow and frog legs because evidently, we didn't learn from our hot vit lon experience back in Saigon. We also ordered some vietnamese sausage.

While we waited, Helmut noticed that the guys next to us were smoking out of something that looked like a tiiny didgeridoo.

He went over to ask what it was and they offered him a hit. Never one to pass up a badass photo op, he took the pipe and pretended to inhale.

It was just tobacco but because of the language barrier we couldn't ascertain why the tube was any different from a cigarette (and no, it wasn't a bong because there was no water).

The vietnamese sausage was the first to come out.

It was rolled up in a banana leaf and was about the size of a cigar.

We have no idea what kind of meat it was made from but it was an interesting taste. Maybe a little like spam or something but not as greasy.

Finally, our sparrow arrived...

...and omg, this was the sorriest plate of food i'd ever seen. How did this ever become a thing in vietnamese culture? How short on food do you have to be to want to take the time to fry these things up?

Each one was about the size of my thumb and trying to get the meat off the bones was nearly impossible!

The meat was very dark and it tasted a little like duck. I couldn't get past the fact that my food looked super dead and pathetic so i will have to say that my sparrow eating days are over. Helmut seemed to like them though.

The frog legs were quite good.

They tasted kind of like chicken. 

Maybe tomorrow we'll go back and spring for the tortoise!